Race In Games Interview

[JCalCGM]

FiringSquad chats with recent University of British Columbia graduate Rob Parungao about his much talked about study that looked at racial stereotypes in games. You can check out the interview right here (http://www.firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=11342). Here is a snip:
FiringSquad: Some people who have read the inital press release feel that the four games you picked are not represenative of the game industry as a whole. What is your response to this?

Rob Parungao: I've heard this a lot. As I mentioned before, much of how people percieve my research is based on how the media has framed it. They often leave out the extensive thought I've put into my proceedure and selection process because of time and space constraints. I would suggest they consider my methodology and provide constructive feedback on how I could have improved it rather than simply bash it without understanding the context of the work. Too often I've heard about how 'stupid' I am from people who don't follow up with any alternative methodologies that I may have overlooked.

[saneman]

If I am reading that correctly, the games he looked at were:

Kung Fu
Warcraft 3
Shadow Warrior
Grand Theft Auto 3

I couldn't really stand reading all the italic text, so I might be missing something there.

[Tennistoad]

Just a couple of things here...

1st. Big Deal, Wanna see stereotypes? Watch any movie from Hollywood etc...

2nd. Here is his method for choosing a game.

# 1)The game must have Asian characters present or Asian culture represented.
# 2)The games must span over a variety of different consoles and game styles.
# 3)The games must have been popular or well-known.

Then he picks Warcraft 3?? What consoles does that play on? a quick search of the internets shows pc,mac only.

/I fear this is another report where the end-conclusion justified the whole paper.

//If you go looking for trees in the forest, you will probably find a few.

[Captain Awesome]

Very good interview and interesting article. I had a discussion just like this with 2 friends of mine 2 nights ago.

If its not in the game, its also how some people approach main chracters in games too. I know some people had a problem playing a "black" character in GTA:SA.

Thanks for this.

[Kermit]

There are stereotypes everywhere about everyone/everything in all kinds of media and in life in general so big surprise that there are stereotypes in games too. This might have been newsworthy if he had discovered that games are in fact the first stereotype-free medium but now it's just stating the obvious.

[Captain Awesome]

This might have been newsworthy if he had discovered that games are in fact the first stereotype-free medium

Really? How's that?

[Kermit]

Really? How's that?
Cause that would be unexpected / "new" info. Any gamer already knows stereotypes are used in games and non gamers can more or less suspect games use stereotypes since every other medium does too.

[Derella]

The first thing I thought was, "why didn't he look at Jade Empire?" I'm guessing it just wasn't popular enough, or maybe it hadn't been released when he started writing his thesis.

I don't feel strongly either way about what he wrote. There is definitely some truth to it -- GTA pretty much throws every negative stereotype I can think of in your face... Blacks, hispanics, gays, asians, italians, etc...

There are stereotypes everywhere about everyone/everything in all kinds of media and in life in general so big surprise that there are stereotypes in games too.
In the interview he says that.

"I used video games as an example to illustrate that common Asian sterotypes persist in popular media (not just games but also TV, newspapers, film, etc.). In the theoretical section of my arguement I explore how there images are rooted within mainstream soceity and reinforce racial hiearchies but thats a bit much and since you're a game site I'm sure the focus should be placed on the video game study part of the thesis, not the theoretical criticism of soceity and all popular media."

[JazGalaxy]

Is there really any doubt that videogames are racist? I'll throw in another one and add that they're sexist too.

If he wanted to do a paper about racism in videogames though, I'm surprised he didn't touch on charachter creation systems in games that supposedly allow you to create "yourself". If you're black that of course means that you either have a bald head or an afro. But I guess we were being progressive when we got cornrows in this last generation.

[BigJonno]

GTA has negative Asian stereotypes? GTA has negative stereotypes of EVERYONE.

It reminds me of the hoo-hah surrounding Jar-Jar Binks. No-one seemed to pick up on the fact that Star Wars has been negatively stereotyping the English as evil imperialists for almost 30 years now.

[The Bashar]

The first thing I thought was, "why didn't he look at Jade Empire?"

Exactly the samething I thought. The thing with racism it's biased towards certain groups. BigJonno, you are allowed to make fun of the English because they were Imperialists and liberals hate imperialists.

[BigJonno]

Exactly. Racism AND hypocrisy. :D

[absolut taco]

If its not in the game, its also how some people approach main chracters in games too. I know some people had a problem playing a "black" character in GTA:SA.

Fuck those people and their complaints!
They have literally thousands of games they can play, that has a white main character. San Andreas is set in a 90s gangsta culture, so of course you have to play it as a black person.

[Shifteh]

I think people are reading this completely incorrect. He's not saying "ZOMFG RASICM IN TEH GAEMS!!!11", he's stating that, as with all other media, video games have godawful racism in them. He picked racism to do with asians because he's taking Asian Studies, jesus Christ people read the damn article more than two sentences in.

1st. Big Deal, Wanna see stereotypes? Watch any movie from Hollywood etc...

Yes, racism is everywhere, so for the love of God, stop talking about it!

[Dag-Sabot]

Yes, racism is everywhere, so for the love of God, stop talking about it!
...and learn to drive!
;)
a) Sounds like this guy suspected his his professors knew jack-shit about videogames when he pulled out this half-baked paper out his ass for some easy credit.

b) Since when do you write a thesis paper to obtain a Bachelors degree? LOL.

c)This guy so reminds me of those "OMG the world is so racist! We gotta stop it!" Bleeding hearts I used to go to school with. Mind numbingly borring and opinionated, mostly trying to get attention at their stupid little rallies, as the multicultural/multiethnic world around them happily goes on about its business.

d)This guy is in Canada for Historic Crab's sake. And UBC's student pop. is so predominately asian, they should really have a NON-asian studies program.

e)Rob Parungao: Definatly
Umm.. spell check much?

[Shifteh]

Umm.. spell check much?

"Borring"?

[Dag-Sabot]

"Borring"?

-Bravo! Well owned, bitch!

So stab me in the eye for the extra "R". You don't actually see me publishing shit like this on the net under the guise of some lame-assed gamer site, to nauseate and to insult anyone unfortunate enough to stumble across it. And if i did, i sure as hell would have, at least, spell-checked it. But then again, i never had to submit a thesis to get my shake n' bake B.A.

[saneman]

So stab me in the eye for the extra "R. You don't actually see me publishing shit like this on the net under the guise of some lame-assed gamer site, to nauseate and to insult anyone unfortunate enough to stumble across it. And if i did, i sure as hell would have, at least, spell-checked it. But then again, i never had to submit a thesis to get my shake n' bake B.A.

Umm.... okee doke....

Edit: In case the purpose behind my emphasis is unclear: depending upon how one views the difference between "publish" and "post" (discussion of which could possibly make for a verbose, if only briefly interesting academic paper), yes we do.

[Dag-Sabot]

Umm.... okee doke....
Is that a common saying in Adelaide?

[saneman]

I wouldn't say so. It, and other such gibberish, does become a lot more common when one is quoting someone else's post for ironic value, and needs to fill space to reach the character quota.

[Dag-Sabot]

Oh, I understand. Big crikey to your dingo, mate!
;)